Hold onto your corks, Eastsiders â Chateau Ste. Michelle may be headed out of town. Washingtonâs oldest + largest winery is pondering a sale of its massive, 118-acre property in Woodinville that includes offices, gardens, an amphitheater, and one of the regionâs most prominent tasting rooms. Wait, we need a minute to digest this.
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Saying goodbye to a Seattle area mainstay may be tough. | "Inside Amy Schumer" GIF via GIPHY
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Okay, deep breaths. Nothing is fully fermented sales-wise, but the company definitely plans to move all of its white wine production to Eastern Washington. And if Chateau Ste. Michelle does end up taking everything else with it â lock, stock, and barrels â the impacts to the local wine scene could be huge. Letâs pour over some details.
End of an era? đ·
Chateau Ste. Michelleâs cemented a vintage legacy over five decades, lining its cellars with awards + drawing over 300,000 visitors each year for tastings and summer concerts. All that wonât go away immediately â reports say a property sale could take years, if it happens at all. But the hints of downsizing, together with the companyâs $1.2 billion sale to an equity firm last year have Washington wine-watchersâ antennas up.
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Chateau Ste. Michelle's Woodinville estate was built in the 1970s. | Photo by SEAtoday staff
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We could build an epic bouncy house đ·
No, seriously â thereâs a lot you can do with all that acreage. However, over half of the Chateau Ste. Michelle site is zoned for residential use only, and the original Hollywood Farm (once owned by lumber baron Frederick Stimson) is on the National Register of Historic Places, which may limit potential development. Still, given the prime location in Woodinville, expect the asking price to be astronomical.
Glass half full đ·
While losing the fancy Chateau would be a huge loss, the Eastside wine scene has developed in leaps + bounds since Ste. Michelleâs original heyday. Here are some more Woodinville names to know, if youâre looking for candidates to fill those grape-crushing shoes.
And donât forget about Wine Walk Row, the new tasting room destination in the Schoolhouse District. Itâs always wine oâ clock somewhere.
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Editor's pick: I recently went to a tasting at Chateau Ste. Michelle and will certainly miss it if its Woodinville days are numbered. I highly recommend you check out a concert there while you still can â tickets for an Aussie Pink Floyd cover band are still available for August. Since the actual band was my first-ever concert, I've got some nostalgia for that one. Raise a glass for true classics.
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